Activists Protest Obama In Los Angeles

About 200 gay activists appeared outside the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles tonight to protest President Obama's perceived inaction on LGBT rights. The president was inside attending a DNC fundraising dinner.

During the protest, the crowd chanted, “Out of the court, into the streets, we are ready to fight, we won’t be beat.” It was a reference to Tuesday’s state Supreme Court decision to uphold Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage. “The president made a promise when he made his speech about hope,” said Rick Jacobs, who chairs the Courage Campaign, an organizer of the protest. “I bought that promise and I still buy that promise, but it’s time for him to start fulfilling that promise for all Americans.” Jacobs, who worked on Howard Dean’s presidential campaign in California, said that gay rights groups had collected 140,000 signatures for a petition asking the president to end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and to stop the firing of U.S. Army Lt. Dan Choi, an Arab language specialist who was ordered discharged after recently declaringthat he was gay on the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. For the demonstration, Gustavo Yanez, 40, of Los Angeles had made a banner saying, “Obama. We voted for change. Stop discrimination.”

Code Pink also protested, waving pink banners against the Iraq war. It's unknown if the president saw or heard either group.